The External Affairs Department is UMD's official news service providing news and information to the media and the general public regarding UMD issues, programs, projects, people and special events.

News and information of all types are disseminated locally, regionally, nationally and internationally through a variety of means such as press releases, news conferences, interviews, press packets and official statements.

Please visit the news site for current UMD news. News releases are no longer posted here. Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns: umdnews@d.umn.edu.

Dr. Priscilla A. Day, professor and head of the Department of Social Work, will receive the 2015 Child Welfare Leadership Award from the University of Minnesota Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare.

UMD's annual research budget of of nearly $67 million includes $14 million in projects that study the earth’s natural and human-made systems, threats to those systems, and development of new technologies.

Five students from UMD’s Department of Civil Engineering and one from the Department of Chemical Engineering received scholarships from the Minnesota branch of the American Council of Engineering Companies.

Dr. Erik Redix, an assistant professor in American Indian Studies, has been awarded a University of Minnesota McKnight Land-Grant Professorship, a two-year award designed to advance the careers of exceptional junior faculty.

The Department of Intercollegiate Athletics received four “Best of” awards from the National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators (NACMA) for marketing and fan-experience work during the 2013-14 sports season.

The 2014 Ben & Jeanne Overman Distinguished Speaker Series will featured Ken Rose, senior staff attorney at the Center for Death Penalty Litigation in Durham, North Carolina, who will present “The Bo Jones Story and My Fight to Save Death Row Inmates.” The free lecture will be held on Wed., Apr. 16, at 7 pm in the 4th Floor Rotunda of the Kathryn A. Martin Library.

UMD Associate Professor Deborah Petersen-Perlman will present “My Jewish Journey” on April 17, a screening and post-film discussion of "The Devil's Arithmetic" will be held on April 17, and children’s author Jane Yolen will present "The Swallows Still Fly Around the Camp Chimneys: The Lasting Impressions of Holocaust on Writers and Child Readers" on April 23.

The Labovitz School of Business and Economics’ (LSBE) Health Care Management Program has attained the Association of University Program in Health Administration (AUPHA) Full Certified Undergraduate Program Membership.

Military-style UMD Heroes dog tags may be purchased for $5 each at UMD Stores and Holiday Stationstores throughout the Duluth area with all proceeds benefiting the Heroes Fund. Currently the fund is only available to those who attend the College of Education and Human Service Professions. With increased monies, the fund would be available to any UMD student who is a veteran, active service member, active Reservist or National Guard member who may need financial support as they pursue their education.

UMD's Alec Habig, professor of physics, is one of the scientists on this international neutrino research project. His work, as he phrases it, is to determine "at exactly which time should we fish for the needle in the data haystack?"

Three faculty, Angela Sharp, instructor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, John Goodge, professor, Department of Geological Sciences, and Kathy Heltzer, instructor, Department of Social Work, will give special lecture presentations.

December 2013

Funding from the National Science Foundation helps to support a summer program, Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU), that Gallian founded and has run at UMD since 1977. His first NSF grant was in 1975, and with this latest award, he is funded through 2016.

Professor Aydin Durgunoglu, interim head of the Department of Psychology in the College of Education and Human Service Professions, will receive the 2013 Award for Global Engagement for her work on adult literacy in Turkey.

Author Daniel Seddiqui, author of 50 Jobs in 50 States: One Man's Journey of Discovery Across America, will give a presentation on Wed. Nov. 6 at 4 pm in the Kirby Student Center Ballroom, as part of National Career Development Month.

October 2013

Author Daniel Seddiqui and UMD Professor Randall Gordon will present on the topic of “Diversity and Discrimination: Personal and Scientific Perspectives” on Thurs. Nov. 7 at 3 pm in the Griggs Center. This event is open and free to the public.

UMD’s Baeumler Kaplan Holocaust Commemoration Committee will host three free public events in conjunction with the “Lawyers Without Rights” exhibit on display at the Federal Courthouse, 515 West First Street, in downtown Duluth.

Richard Brown, senior fellow at the Labovitz School of Business and Economics (LSBE), has been named the recipient of Financial Planning Magazine’s 2013 New Generation Influencer Award for his role in developing the TD Ameritrade Institutional Learning Lab at LSBE.

An open house will be held on Fri., Oct. 18 in Bohannon Hall 351 from 1:15-2 pm. The MAPS degree offers three different emphases: Clinical-Counseling Psychology, Industrial-Organizational Psychology, and General-Experimental Psychology.

UMD Women's Hockey Coach Shannon Miller is Russia's mentor through an International Ice Hockey Federation mentoring program and helped secure Duluth and AMSOIL as Russia's home base from Nov. 20 until Dec. 2

Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Josh Berlo has added some new projects that will increase emphasis on fan experience and engagement, while continuing to grown the national profile of UMD Athletics.

Dr. Monica Bruning, from Iowa State University, will lead the areas of Admissions, Registrar, Financial Aid, Students in Transition, Assessment/HLC, Strategic Enrollment Management, and Institutional Research.

Three students from UMD's Management Club placed second in the Junior Achievement Corporate Titan Challenge. They were the only student team that participated in the competition that included teams from local businesses.

An article by UMD sophomore Hayley Westphal highlights the accomplishments of senior Taylor Kosey who graduates in May with a degree in Communication Sciences & Disorders and minors in Psychology and Deaf Studies.

UMD graduates premiere documentary about a transformational road trip to Alabama. Their mission was tell the story of a culture of dog abuse. Instead they were inspired by the spirit of those who rescue.UMD Graduates' Documentary Premiers in Duluth

UMD graduates premiere documentary about a transformational road trip to Alabama. Their mission was tell the story of a culture of dog abuse. Instead they were inspired by the spirit of those who rescue.

Professor Emeritus Hans Henrich Hock, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will present a lecture entitled "Appropriating the Past: Language, Archaeology, and Ideology in South Asia" on Thurs., April 11 at 4 pm, in the UMD Library Rotunda.

A rally will be held on Saturday, April 13 to kick off UMD's third CHAMP (Connecting Hopes with Action to Mobilize People) Day of Service. Last year's CHAMP Day of Service mobilized 328 volunteers who engaged in 1048 hours of service in a single day.

An interview with sophomore Brigette Lacquette, who is majoring in physical education and American Indian Studies and plays defenseman on the UMD women's hockey team, will be broadcast on "Native Report" on March 21. Lacquette is a member of the Cote First Nation.

The Department of American Indian Studies is celebrating its 40th Anniversary with a faculty and student research showcase on Tues., Mar. 12 from 5-7 pm in the UMD Library Rotunda. The public is invited.

Several LSBE students joined together and decorated a UMD-inspired holiday tree for the non-profit organization, the American Red Cross Northland Chapter, to include in the annual Fitger's Holiday Forest silent auction

On Monday, December 5, Minnesota's own "Ritchie Boy," Walter Schwarz, will tell about his experiences as one of the mostly Jewish men who fled Nazi Germany only to return to Europe as soldiers in U.S. uniforms.

UMD's James I. Swenson Civil Engineering building was recently honored with the prestigious Distinguished Building Award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Chicago chapter and was selected to grace the cover of the current issue of Chicago Architect, AIA Chicago's magazine.

Directed by Tom Isbell, written by Sara Thomsen, and presented by UMD, Duluth, and regional community artists on Friday, November 11, and Saturday, November 12 at 7:30 p.m. in the Marshall Performing Arts Center

The groundbreaking ceremony for the building construction will be held at 1:30 pm on Monday, October 24, 2011, in Silver Bay, Minn., at the Eco-Industrial Development Site just north of the Silver Bay traffic lights on Scenic Highway 61 (next to AmericInn)

750 staff and faculty will be addressed by Chancellor Black during two events on Wednesday, August 31, and Thursday, September 1. The UMD Strategic Plan will be included in the Chancellor's address at both events.

Currently the Vice President for Student Development and Enrollment at Bemidji State University in Bemidji, Minnesota, Lisa Erwin will begin her duties on August 15 as UMD Vice Chancellor for Student Life.